I first tried queen's gambit and king's indian defence,king's indian became one of my favourites but, queen's gambit was very hard to study because of it's huge theory!I
So you think that queens gambit got more theory than Kings indian defense?
I didn't say sth like this but Queens's Gambit is almost 6 different oppenings !It's not easy to know Slav/Semi-Slav/Accepted/Declined/Tartakover...
My main line as White involves quick action.
The Closed Catalan is actually much more frequently seen. The Closed Catalan is not about memorizing a line.
Catalan oppening isn't easy too. But I started ig main lines. For me is a great chess oppening with a lot of possibilities for both sides.
Personally wouldn't start looking at a Topalov game when starting to look at the Catalan, for either side. Didn't understand what Topalov was trying to do in practically any game of that match. For example in the game, in the 70's and 80's Smyslov played 7...Nc6 8Qxc4 Qd5 which is at least developing the peices. Am sure if look at details in something like Avrukh's book Topalov's line is playable or even good, but what a place to start.
Look at the games of the recent Candidates' Tournament at Yekaterinburg where it was played several times e.g. by Ding Liren.
I'm playing the Catalan at the moment (considering switching to e4 but that's another story). The main variations are obviously normal development into castling into taking on c4, lots of variations there.
Then you have every single variation when black takes before castling, that can go with c6, Nc6, Nc6 and a6, only a6, b5, Bd7, B-check, Nbd7, c5, and I might forget some. These are crucial to know against opponents that tend to choose some obscure line.
And then probably the most challenging variation, B-check then taking on c4, kinda like a bogo-indian fashion. If you block with the bishop, you just get a drawn position ; I prefer putting a knight on c3 to block, but the game only revolves around a mistake from black since the positions arising are tremendously complex.
To me, the slav is as much of a problem than the aforementioned variation, so you should also be prepared to other defenses than the orthodox QGD style.
Hello Guys !I am an 1.e4 player but I am recently intrested in putting an 1.d4 oppening in my repertoire...I first tried queen's gambit and king's indian defence,king's indian became one of my favourites but, queen's gambit was very hard to study because of it's huge theory!I tried sth different , the Catalan Oppening (1.d4 Nf3 2.c4 e6 3.g3 d5 4.Nf3 or 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.g3 Nf3 4.Bg2..). The Catalan Oppening is one of the most increasing oppenings of the past 10 years ,mostly played by Vladimir Kramnik and Vishwanathan Anand.Both players played the oppening vs Vasselin Topalov in WC and the score was +2 for each player .
The idea seems preety good , having a fianchetooed bishop looking on queenside...Now, I have a small problem finding the main continues could you give me some examples of variations or games which will help understanding better the Catalan?
Now here is a great Game of Viswanathan Anand vs. Vasselin Topalov in Sofia 2010 WCC game 4!